House of Dark Shadows (1970)

good back-story, and good acting

Admirable film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I watched this movie all the way through and just couldn't get into it. It is one of those movies that is like a 30s or 40s black and white movie but with color. The acting/writing/direction is exactly like that of a black and white movie but it is in color. These should have some kind of name to refer to them, there are a lot of them and if you like one, you like them all. For me, i have never been able to get into these kinds of movies. Most Italian horrors and gallios are like this. Maybe one day ill get into it but I've seen a lot and still don't get it.This movie is about a vampire and a researcher that is trying to find a cure.. i don't really remember details since i couldn't get into it.

I re-watched this last night. For the past year, I've been watching the classic Dark Shadows series, and I thought this movie was done pretty well. I love how they actually play the theme (unlike Tim Burton's version) They tried so hard to re-film scenes from episodes 211- 300ish and cram it all into a 90 minute movie. Their cut scenes felt like they cut it too short and went on to something else. In the beginning of the show, Barnabas was very much a monster and killed people, but as the series progressed, he sorta became a good guy and helped people. This film shows Barnabas as he was in the beginning; a vampire that killed people and forced Willie Loomis to be his servant. After attacking Carolyn, Barnabas becomes attracted to Maggie Evans, who be believes is his lost love, Josette DuPres re-incarnated.If you didn't watch the show, you'd probably have no idea what's going on. The film starts so suddenly it feels like it's in the middle of one of the episodes. No story as to who the Collins family are. No mention of Victoria Winters. No backstory as to how Barnabas became a vampire, and not mentioned how or why Dr. Hoffman, Jeff Clark, or Professor Stokes are there (but in the series, it's all explained. This film doesn't run con-current with the series, so it's not meant to be a sequel to the show) It has its faults, but it's a pretty worthy film based on the series. If you love the series, you may enjoy HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS!!!

I was one of those people who watched Dark Shadows every day and was a bonifide fan. The show worked on several levels. An intriguing, Gothic soap opera, the first of it's kind and a hilarious, rushed production with all kinds of gaffes. I bought the soundtrack record album when it came out, and, in 1970, went to see House of Dark Shadows, the big-screen adaptation. I just tonight re-watched the film and I feel pretty much the same about it as I did then. This is a classy, upscale version of the most popular story line in the long running series. It takes the basic Barnabas vampire plot and gives it a few new twists. The cast, which includes most of the original players from the series, is uniformly good. The photography is gorgeous, making excellent use of some appropriate locations, and setting up some beautiful individual shots. The music, by Robert Cobert, is mostly the same terrific score from the TV series. There is, however, far more blood spilled in this theatrical film then there was on the TV series. On the whole, this film would be most satisfying to any fan of the TV show. While this still isn't available on DVD, it is available for a rent or purchase download on Vudu in a beautiful widescreen print.

To begin with, my expectations for this vintage vampire flick – one of two cinema spin-offs (but whose DVD release has been pending for several years now!) of the seemingly never-ending TV series (putting paid to the prospect of acquiring it on DVD and of which I knew next to nothing beforehand except for the name of the lead vampire!) – were considerable given the cult status of the franchise (not forgetting my own impression of the other Dan Curtis work I'd watched thus far); incidentally, I don't think the more recent "Dark Shadows" incarnations have had much of an impact. Even so, I couldn't help feeling let down to some extent by the result – since, while it's certainly well done in most respects and highly watchable (in spite of the over-familiar subject matter) – there's nothing really outstanding about it either!Vampirism is clearly one of the horror themes which has, pardon the pun, been done to death most over the years; yet, when handled with reasonable flair (though negated somewhat here by the full-frame presentation of the Laserdisc-sourced edition I watched – amusingly reverting to a blue-screen for a split-second at one point, denoting the end of Side A!), it's able to retain all the fascination and chill-factor inherent within the subgenre. Incidentally, several vampire films made during this time utilized – not always successfully – a modern-day setting; this, however, was one of the more effective because the vast estate around which much of the events revolve – plus the old-style look of the vampire himself (Jonathan Frid bearing a striking resemblance to Boris Karloff, with a bit of Harry Dean Stanton thrown in for good measure!) – supplies the requisite Gothic touch in spades. As I said, it follows much the typical pattern of cinematic vampires: the undead Barnabas Collins obviously hides his true identity initially; he practically enslaves the man (John Karlen from DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS [1971]) who re-awakens him (incidentally, it appears that the vampire was left chained inside his coffin for 200 years i.e. he wasn't killed in the traditional way beforehand!) without being turned into a vampire himself – similarly, there's the usual illogicality in that some people become afflicted with just one bite while the heroine, conveniently, requires numerous 'sessions'!; Collins ensnares a couple of women throughout, one of whom is never seen again, but then incurs the jealousy of the other – who's strong-willed and, therefore, more compelling than the lovely but rather bland heroine – through his obsession with the latter, a girl who's ostensibly the reincarnation of the vampire's dead love (she's not actually a descendant of hers, but just happens to be working for the family!), etc.A couple of novel (and interesting) ideas, then, involve the middle-aged female doctor played by Grayson Hall (she was excellent in the Tennessee Williams adaptation THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA [1964]). Falling for Collins herself, she attempts to use her knowledge to cure his affliction – by which treatment he's able to withstand sunlight as well as diminish his blood craving; however, when he wants to speed up the process for the heroine's sake, the two fall out and he kills her, but turns soon after himself into a bald and wizened old man! Thayer David contributes another impressive turn as the family lawyer (like the rest of their various associates, he hardly ever seems to leave the premises!) who's actually the first to suspect of Frid's true nature. Unfortunately, while he had been played up as a formidable adversary for the vampire (despite his penchant for referring to him as the "living dead" and, having mentioned this, there's an inconsistency as well with the fact that vampires shouldn't but are often seen to cast reflections in a mirror!), David's then shown to have fallen victim to the curse himself off-screen – which doesn't quite convince. I guess, though, that the purpose for this was two-fold: to upset audience expectations, but also to leave the gate open for a showdown in which hero – who had barely featured in the plot until then! – and vampire contend over the former's girlfriend and the latter's intended bride…with a little help from the vampire's own slave (who happens to be smitten with the girl himself)! By the way, while veteran Hollywood actress Joan Bennett's role of family matriarch is given a prominent credit in the cast list, her participation is very small and – even more disappointingly – negligible! All in all, the film is stylish and enjoyable – with just the right balance of mood, thrills and even romance; while the sequel, which is to follow, NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS (1971) is said to be much inferior (not surprising given its compromised current form), I'm still looking forward to an open-minded preliminary appraisal of it. Accompanying the feature is a frenziedly-edited trailer which, delightfully typical of its time, also contains such campy narration as "House Of Dark Shadows – where death is a way of life" and ending with "Come see how the vampires do it"!! For the record, after this Curtis mini-marathon, I'll be left with at least two more interesting made-for-TV horror efforts (both coincidentally broadcast in 1973) he was associated with – the nth adaptation of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN and Oscar Wilde's almost-as-popular THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, both of which he only produced and are, happily, readily available on DVD...